The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-09-21
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Woman's Specific Rights.

Solomon's Song, vi, s.
So Solomon, by one stroke, set forth the
imperial character of a true Christian woman.
She is not q slave, not hireling, not sub
ordinate, but queen; and in my text Solo
mon sees sixty of these helping to make up
the royal pageant of Jesus. In a former SER
mon showed you that crown and courtly
attendants and imperial wardrobe were not
necessary to make queen; but that graces
of the heart and life will give coronation to
any woman. showed you at some length
that woman's position was higher in the world
than mans, and that although she had often
been denied the right of suffrage, she always
did vote and always would vote by her influ-
ence; and that her chief desire ought to be-
that she should have grace rightly to rule in
the dominion which she has already won.
began an enumeration of some OF her rights,
and this morning resume the subject.
In the first place, woman has the special
and the superiatiVe right-not again going
back to what I have already Said-woman
has the special and superlative right of bless
ing and comforting the sick.
What land, what street, what house has
not felt the smitings of disease' Tens Of
thousands of sick beds! What shall we do
with them? Shall man, with his rough hand
and clumsy foot, 60 stumbling around the,
sick room, trying to soothe the distracted
nerves and alleviate the pains Of the tossing
patienti The young man at college may
scoff at the idea of being under maternal in
f1uences, but at the first blast of the typhoid
fever on his cheek be says: "Where is
motherT' Walter Scott wrote partly in
satire and partly in compliment when he said:
Owoman, in our hours Of ease,
Uncertain, coy and hard TO please;
When pain and anguish wiring the brow,
mnstering angel thou.
I think the most pathetic passage in all the
Bible is the description Of the lad who went
out to the harvest field Of Shunem and got
misunderstanding his hands on his temples
and crying out "Oh, my head my head !"
And then the record is; He sat on her knees
till noon, and then; died" 1t is an awful
thing to be i'll away from home in a strange
hotel, once in while men coming in to look
at you, holding their hand over their mouth
for fear they will catch the contagion. How
roughly they turn, you in bed. How loudly
they talk. How you long for the ministries,
of home. I knew one such who went away
from one of the brightest Of homes for
several weeks business absence at tho West.
A telegram came, at midnight that he was,
on his death. bed, far away from home. By
express train the wife and daughters went
westward; but they went too late He feared
not to die, but he was in agony to live until
his family got there. He tried to bribe'
Gh6 OOCCOr To- IIlfak9 llNo d. llLLie
while longer. He said: 81 am willing to. die
but not alone" But the pulses fluttered,. the
eyes closed, and the heart stopped The ex-
press trains met in the midnight; wife and
daughters going westward-lfeless remains
of husband and father coming eastward 0,
it was a sad, pitiful, overwhelming
spectaclet When we are sick we. want
to be back at home. When the
time comes for us to die, we want to
die at home. The room may be very
humble, and ths faces that look into
ours may be very plain; but who cares for
that' Loving hands to battle the temples
Loving voices to speak good cheer. Loving
lips to read the comforting promises Of Jesus.
In our last dreadful war men cast the can
non; men fashioned the musketry: men cried
to the hosts: Forward, marchr men hurled
their battalions on the sharp edges of the
enemy. crying: Charge charge" but woman
scraped the lint; woman administered the
cordials; woman watched by the dying
couch; woman wrote the last message to the
home circle: woman wept at the solitary
burial attended by herself and four men with
a spade. We greeted the general home
with brass bands, and triumphal arches,
and wild huzzas; but the story is too good to
be written anywhere, save in the chronicles
of heaven, of Mrs. Brady, who came down
among the sick in the swamps of the Chicha-
hospital; of NJ: re- lret Breckenridge, who came
to men who ad been for weeks with their
wounds undresSed-some of them frozen to
the ground, and when she turned them over
those that had an arm left waved it and filled
the air with their s'hurrah;"o of Mrs. Hodge,
who came from Chicago with blankets and
with pillows, until the men shouted: ''Three
cheers for the Christian Commission
God bless the women at home" !"
khn,, cir n 10
message: 'Tell my wife not to fret
about me- but to meet me in heaven; tell her
to TT ain up the boys whom we have love so
we'll; tell her we shall meet again in the good
land; tell her to bear my loss like the Chris
tian wife of Christian soldier" and Of Mrs.
Shelton, into whose face the convalescent
soldier looked and said: '"Your grapes
and cologne cured me-" Men did
their work with shot and shell, and carbine,
socks, and slippers, and bandages, and warm
drinks, and Scripture texts, and gentle strok-
ings of the hot temples, and stories Of that
land where they never have any pain. Men
knelt down over the wounded and said: ION
which side did you fght~ Women knelt
| down over the wounded and said: "Where
| are you hurt? What nice thing can make
,, for you to eat! What makes you cryT' To
| night, while we men are sound asleep In our
beds, there will be a light in yonder loft;
| there will be groaning down that dark allev;
there will be cries Of distress in that cellar.
! Men will sleep and women will watch.
Again, woman has O Superlative right to
take care of the poor. There are hundreds
| and thousands of them all over the land.
| There is n kind of work that men cannot do
| for the poor. Here comes group Of little bare
| foot children to the door of the Dorcas Socle-
ty. They need to be clothed and provided for:
| Of hon 10
know how many yards it would take to MAKE
that little girl dress2 Which Of these mas
culine hands could fit a hat to that little
girls head? Which Of the wise men
would know how to tie on new pair or
shoes! Man sometimes gives his charity
in rough way, and it falls like the fruit
of tree in the east, which fruit GENES
down so heavily that it breaks the skull
of the man who is trying to gather it. But
woman glides so softly into the house OF des-
titution, and finds OUT all the sorrows OF the
place, and puts so quietly the donation on the
table, that all the family come out on the
front steps as she departs, expecting that
/ from under her shawl she will thrust out two
wings and 60 right up toward heaven, from
whence she seems to have come down.
Oh Christian young woman! if you
would make yourself happy and win
the blessings Of Christ, go out among
the destitute. A loaf of bread or bundle of
socks may make homely load to carry, but
the angels of God will come out to watch,
and the Lord Almighty will give his mes
senger hosts charge, saying: Look after
, that woman. Canopy her with your wings
and shelter her from all harm;" and while
! you are seated in the house of destitution and
suffering, the little ones around the room
will whisper: 'Who is she? Amt she beau
tlful" anil if you will listen right sharply you
will hear dripping down through the leaky
roof, and rolling over the rotten stairs, the
ANAL chant thai shook Bethlehem: "CIlOry